My name is Stephanie Woolf and this is the journey of my life as a missionary in the Dominican Republic Santiago Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Thursday, October 9, 2014 - Week 59

Hey! How is
everyone?? Conference was great this past weekend! Saturday we had some
difficulties and so I didn´t see much of the first session and the second one I
watched in Spanish. It´s just not the same. Watching Elder Holland speak but
not hearing his voice... haha. and the translators don´t put any emotion into
it like he does. But it was good. Sunday we got the computer working and I got
to see it all in English! I loved Elder Bednar´s talk! (probably because I´m a
missionary) Haha but seriously. It was so good. We really don´t share the
gospel to convert people to our church. It´s because we want to share the joy
we have with them. There also seemed to be a theme of revelation and prophets
on Sunday too. I feel like they are really trying to speak to the non-members
more and more in Conference. Also didn´t you love that they have the members of
the Seventy speak in their native languages now!? That´s so cool! I wish we
could have heard it though and just had English subtitles. But overall it was
amazing! We had a few people come, but not nearly as many as promised us they
would... Haha. I guess it´s hard when there´s change. But hoping for more this
Sunday. One investigator is having a hard time giving up coffee. I don´t think
she really understands why it´s bad for her. Her two daughters have given it up
completely though and her husband (who wasn´t present when we taught the Word
of Wisdom but that we taught on Monday) also agreed to give it up. He was even
explaining to us why it´s bad for our body. I hope the 3 of them can help her.
I´m going strong on the soda! Some days it´s so hard, but I´m not just doing it
for me. I´m doing it for someone else I love. It makes resisting it so much
easier. But things are going well with them. It´s been kinda hard because if we
go to their house and the dad isn´t there, we still teach the rest of the
family, but then when he is there, we have to repeat everything so he´s caught
up. But he´s showing a lot of interest and wants to go to church again this
week. So this week the brother of a lady in the branch died. He´s been going
through lots of operations and has been living in the hospital for a couple
months, but they thought he was getting better. His death was a surprise. Like
15 of us got together and went and visited her the next day. Wow I´ve never
experienced anything like that. She was sobbing and blaming herself for not
being there and not doing more. It was really sad. I can´t imagine how that
must feel. We just hugged her a lot and gave her loving words, but there wasn´t
much we could do. Then we went and visited all her siblings that live close by
too. I hope she could feel God´s love in that moment. But it´s so great to have
a family in the church to help support each other. So yesterday, I got to go to
Tamboril again!!! I love going to Tamboril! Since my comp is dying (ending her
mission) in 2 weeks we got to go again to say goodbye. And 2 of my other comps
are dying too so the 4 of us (Woolf, Monegro, Navas, and Pierre) all went
together to visit everyone! We visited so many people! Like 10 houses! They
were all so surprised to see all of us. Everyone is doing great! We did get
some sad news though. The couple that was baptized aren´t going to be ready
next month to go to the temple. They need to take the temple preparation class
first and it would help to at least visit the temple once before going to get
sealed! They don´t have much money though so I don´t know what will happen.
There are 2 other couples in the branch that are preparing to get sealed too so
they will be doing the class together. We´re going to plan for January now.
Although, I have no idea how long the class takes... Do you know? I hope they
can go while I´m still here. But we also got some good news! The girl that was
baptized while I was in Tamboril wants to serve a mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She´s going to start her papers now and she can go out (earliest) in February
(a year from her baptism). Wow I´m been so blessed to meet these people.
Sometimes I get discouraged that I haven´t had a ton of baptisms, but one of my
converts is going to get sealed, and the other is going on a mission! How can I
be disappointed about that! They are such wonderful people! I´m so happy for
them! I´ll get to visit them again in just 4 months. The time is flying. Thanks
Mom for sending the package. I’ll be able to go and get it on Wednesday. Chikengunya
has died down a ton. I almost never even hear that word anymore. Haha. It´s cuz
EVERYONE has already had it and really the affects have gone away for almost
all of them. I´m glad to hear seminary is going well and you get a bit of a
break. Why isn´t there school on Friday and Monday? I actually did hear about
Meet the Mormons! It came up on the LDS website so I got to see a trailer of it
and see David Archuleta sing too! That´s my favorite EFY song! You´ll have to
tell me how it is. Is it starting to get cold yet? Anyways, I love you all!!
Have a wonderful week!